Theseus, defeater of the Minotaur

Artist

Born in 1759 in Paris, Charles-douard Chaise was the son of a painter, art dealer and member of the Académie de Saint-Luc. At the age of 16 (1775), Chaise began studying under Jean Bonvoisin, who had, in the same year, won first prize in the prix de Rome. Later, Chaise became a student of Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, before winning second prize in the 1778 prix de Rome with David condemning to death the Amalekite bringing him Saul’s diadem. Unfortunately, this painting is lost, with only three paintings by Chaise known to survive: Theseus, defeater of the Minotaur being one. He exhibited works in the salons of 1783, 1791 and 1793, before his death at Fountainebleau in 1798.

Historical Context

Theseus, defeater of the Minotaur was painted in 1791, during the revivial of classical artworks and culture that originated from the archaeological discoveres excavated from sites in the Mediterranean such as Pompeii and Herculaneum (Walch, 1967), new translations and illustrations of Homer, the Greek tragedians, and Ovid (Johnson, 2011) (David to Delacroix), and the “hordes of patrons and architects” that swept through Europe on the Grand Tour (Grafton et al. 2010, p.64) (The Classical Tradition).

The artwork depicts the story of the Minotaur and Ariadne in Book 8 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses:

In this the Minotaur was long concealed, and there devoured Athenian victims sent three seasons, nine years each, till Theseus, son of Aegeus, slew him and retraced his way, finding the path by Ariadne’s thread.

Artwork Description

Neoclassical in nature, the painting shows Theseus standing in triumph over the corpse of the Minotaur. Theseus, angular, muscular, and resolute, is juxtaposed against the round, curved, collapsing figures of the females surrounding himm akin to the recently completed The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques Louis David (1784). Ariadne, who is supported by the club that was used to kill the Minotaur, is wavering: her left hand gently placed on the weapon, her right lifting up as if wanting to comfort the defeated. Her eyes gaze onto the visible fallen human body of the Minotaur, as the head of the monster drifts into the shadows. She realises that by aiding Theseus, she was the cause of the murder: her murder weapon, the rope, drapes down the stairs, leading to the fallen.